Initially, the show was broadcast as an irreverent, late-night New York City broadcast on WNYW, but as it expanded, the show began to cover stories throughout America that were overlooked or ignored by the then-dominant network news organizations.

The logo of the show is a distinctive pyramid with a "zoom-like" sound effect (immortalized as the "ka-chung") for a theme. While showing some hard news stories, the focus of the show is often entertainment, scandals, gossip and exploitative tabloid journalism. It was popular during the 1990s when magazine-type news shows were common during daytime television. Its main competitors were Hard Copy and Inside Edition (The latter of which remains on the air today), along with the many talk shows that dominated daytime TV during the 1990s.[2]

On March 21, 2005, the series was revived after a nine-year hiatus. Former Atlanta Falconsdefensive end and lawyer Tim Green hosted the new edition,[3] known unofficially as ACA 2. In resurrecting the show, Fox gave the show a more serious tone by covering more news and crime, rather than entertainment-oriented stories. As with the original incarnation, overt politicizing was left out of the show. The series aired on all Fox owned and operated stations (O&Os). This resurrection would be short lived, however, as the departure from the Fox organization of Lachlan Murdoch and his replacement by Fox News chief Roger Ailes led to Fox's announcement that Ailes would replace the show with Geraldo at Large in November 2005, only seven months after ACA 2 premiered.

Suspicions that Ailes pulled the show because the ACA team was competing with, and sometimes besting his cable Fox News Channel, were intensified in October 2005, when, after its cancellation was announced, ACA broadcast an exclusive interview with Natalee Holloway murder suspect Joran van der Sloot, and Rivera revealed to the press that Ailes planned to use the timeslot as a beachhead for the establishment of a Fox News nightly newscast.[4]